When it comes to applying for roles, candidates have a lot more options now.
"Candidates love spending hours filling in online application forms."
Said no-one ever.
It's time for some truth-telling. When it comes to applying for roles, candidates have a lot more options now.
Do you think they would prefer to spend two hours filling in application forms or a short process followed by some sort of contact?
It's a no-brainer.
In recruitment, we have gone back to relationship-building and focusing on a better experience before a candidate engages in a process. This could be as simple as conducting more face-to-face interviews or a phone call, as opposed to just applying online.
At Hunter, we pride ourselves on this 'high touch' approach. It can take more time, is more costly to our business, but ultimately the candidate gets a better experience - and our clients get a better outcome.
In highly-populated countries like India and China, they might need more process and a longer application cycle. Sure, that works for that region.
But countries where skills are in such short supply - like in our telecommunications market, where it is very niche and highly networked – the approach needs to be tailored.
The effect on company branding
A candidate once told me, "I just spent an hour filling out a form, and then three days later I get a rejection notice. What a time-wasting exercise,” he said, followed by, “I will never apply to that company again!”
Or, you might have candidates that are suited to the role, but they drop out because the process of applying or engaging is too difficult.
Focusing on hiring managers' customer journey
A hiring manager needs the right skill set - and generally quickly. There's also the consideration of what the business needs in terms of productivity and outcomes.
If the hiring managers' journeys are taking three weeks, a month or longer to finalise, then you have a poor client experience and a poor customer journey. Seeing the hiring manager as a customer is exactly how we see things at Hunter and we are very conscious of their customer journey.
If we can put a real focus back on the candidate experience and hiring managers experience I feel there are better productivity benefits in the long-run.